Letters / Based on myths
I am writing to challenge Ariane Burgess of the Green Party on her article in “Your MSPs’ Views” in the Shetland Times of 10 February 2023.
She states the “life in our seas is either gone or in rapid decline”. Can she source where she gets her data from – certainly not fishermen who know better than any civil servant/academic what’s in our waters.
She says young fishers can’t find a way to make it work; well the biggest obstacle is people like her who campaign to ban trawling and who suggests protecting certain areas of water – all based on myths.
Our seas’ stocks are as healthy as they have ever been!
If in bed with SNP, then she will also turn a blind eye to the unregulated tons of fish pillaged out of Shetland waters by EU owned boats.
I also wonder if she knows how ungreen it is to allow these same EU boats to deliberately discard fishing gear, engine oil, domestic waste etc.
Can she source where she finds our population is in serious decline?
Demographics shows between 2001 and 2021, the population of Shetland Islands increased by 4.5 per cent; so why is she saying we are drifting away to the central belt?
In the words of Abraham Lincoln: “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.”
Arlene Robertson
Fishing Forward UK Campaigner
